Grieving Mom asks Sitterly for murder investigation
She's worried about threats; claims sheriff's office too compromised to process new evidence and has too many failures to be trusted
NORWALK — The family of a murdered woman is demanding Huron County Prosecutor Jim Sitterly ask the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) to take over the investigation into the death of Katelynn Shepard.
“The sheriff’s office has had eight years to solve this case and has no new evidence or made any advancements,” Tracy Thom, an advocate for the family of Katelynn Shepard wrote in an email to Sitterly and to state officials. “Sheriff Corbin has a civil lawsuit from the botched Amanda Dean case and he and his office are under criminal investigation.”
Tricia Shepard and Katelynn’s stepfather, Jeff Maletz and their younger daughter Hailey Maletz were at the sheriff’s office on Tuesday for a scheduled appointment with Sheriff Corbin, but he was a no show. A dispatcher said they could not find the sheriff, or Lt. B. Duncan.
Thom told state officials in an email this morning that Corbin lied to Caroline Tokar, Amanda Dean’s mother, for seven years, about the murder of her daughter.
“Tricia Shepard is a grieving mother but she can’t believe a word he says now, Thom wrote. “Clearly, Corbin is compromised and the sheriff’s office is in disarray right now. So much so, they couldn’t even attend the scheduled meeting that THEY set up with us.”
The family grows more concerned that Corbin does not intend to do anything with new evidence he’s been given or ask for any help. The sheriff’s office has not acknowledged the new evidence. It’s not clear if it was logged in or made part of the case file. It’s also not clear that Corbin understands the importance of the new evidence, Thom said. Deputies are just incapable, at this point, to render Katelynn’s family any assistance.
“Tricia Shepard is asking you once again to bring in the BCI,” she told Sitterly and state officials. “Someone please help this mother she’s waited eight years.”
The email was copied to Ohio Attorney General David Yost, assistant AG Daniel Kasaris, BCI Special Agent John Saraya, assistant attorney generals Patricia Stipek and Micah Ault. The AG’s office, much like Corbin’s office, does not necessarily respond to inquiries from the public, however, or fulfill the expectations of a public office reference to its First Amendment obligations.
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The AG’s office is withholding investigatory records from the Amanda Dean murder investigation it conducted that explain why Sheriff Corbin provided a false narrative in his report that Amanda Dean was alive after she was murdered in 2017. Yost refuses to say if the material will be presented to a grand jury, or if charges against Corbin or other sheriff’s office employees or former employees are being considered. It’s been more than three years since state investigators learned about Corbin’s false narrative.
Yost requires staff to maintain a code of silence unless they are given express permission to comment on cases. The Ohio Attorney General’s office is uncooperative with the press and regularly refrains from properly disclosing the public’s business when it is asked to do so. Yost, nor anyone else from his office, has ever answered questions or responded to inquiries about the Amanda Dean case, or the Katelynn Shepard homicide.
